Nearly four-fifths of Canadians expect the economy to worsen over the next few months

The investor demand for multi-family homes in Metro Vancouver appears to have surged after the recent lending-rate cuts, according to Western Investor.

The sudden interest in apartment buildings came amid the growing concerns about the potential impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the economy, said Mark Goodman, a principal at Goodman Commercial.

“Interest rates are dropping with no end in sight, which is fuelling the real estate market,” he said in a report in Western Investor.

In an unexpected move, the Bank of Canada (BoC) has announced emergency changes to the monetary policy, lowering its target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points to 0.75%. This was the first time the BoC made an unscheduled rate decision since the financial crisis in 2009.

Since the BoC’s announcement, several banks have already announced discounts to their lending rates, allowing for a “sudden surge” in demand for apartments, said Goodman.